1. Field of the Invention
Applicant's invention relates to non-mechanized conveyances, and to shopping carts in particular.
2. Background Information
Grocery carts are of fairly standard configuration, but all such carts known to this inventor share one common feature--they are large relative to the volume of products which a user of "express lanes" at a grocery store are likely to purchase. People who go into grocery stores "just to pick up a few things" often skip getting a shopping cart. Such customers would rather not deal with the large, cumbersome shopping carts of the prior art for the small volume of goods which they intend to purchase.
A frequent problem facing customers who forego the shopping cart is that of selecting more goods than expected. This leads to one of two results: (1) the customer does a "balancing act" trying to get their goods to the register stands; or (2) the (now irritated) customer goes back to the store front to retrieve a shopping cart.
As every grocer in particular knows, customers who try to get by without a cart often drop items. Such items may include gallon jugs of milks, sugar sacks, dozen egg cartons, and other such items as create a substantial mess (and safety hazard) when dropped to a hard grocery store floor.
These problems have been addressed to a limited degree by the advent of handled baskets which now appear near many store entrances. These carry-around baskets are good in theory. However, anyone who has used one of these baskets for even a relatively short time can attest to the resulting discomfort to the hands.
What is needed is an item which bridges the gap between full-scale shopping carts and carry-around baskets. Such a cart would ideally be somewhat smaller than existing standard shopping carts, it would be convertible between a usable configuration to a highly compact storage configuration so that grocers (and other basket-using proprietors) would not likely resist adding the carts to their floor space, and it would reliably and sturdily carry a moderate amount of cargo.